Bradford Disney Lund Instructs His "Hostile" Trustees to Stop Their Efforts to Sell His Wyoming Family Ranch Against His Wishes and Accuses Them of Violating the Terms of His Trust, According to Lanny J. Davis, Attorney for Lund

JACKSON, Wyo., Jan. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Walt Disney's grandson, Bradford D. Lund, has written a letter to his four trustees – L. Andrew Gifford, Robert L. Wilson, Douglas M. Strode, and the First Republic Trust Company ("FRTC") (collectively, "the Trustees") – ordering them to stop all their efforts to sell a pristine and sentimental 110-acre Wyoming family ranch, set on the outskirts of Teton National Park (owned by his trust, together with his sister's trust) to an undisclosed third party.

Mr. Lund's letter starts by noting that the Trustees have failed to provide him with even basic details about the impending sale of his beloved family ranch:

"You are not to sell my ranch. I am one of the beneficial owners of the ranch. Again, I demand to know what day the closing will be, who the buyer is, where the closing will be. You have a legal obligation to disclose all details of my trust to me. There is no provision in my trust that allows you to have an agreement with a 3rd party to keep my trust information away from me. You are all violating the trust terms."

The ranch has been the subject of litigation in both Wyoming and California as Mr. Lund has been attempting to stop the sale since September 2020 when the Trustees for the first time indicated that they entered into a sales contract with an unidentified third-party. Mr. Lund's attempt to stop the sale in the Wyoming state court system was unsuccessful based upon a legal doctrine, forum non conveniens, where the Wyoming court determined that the issue should be decided in the Los Angeles courts with the rest of Mr. Lund's probate case. The Wyoming decision was not based on the merits of Mr. Lund's complaint.

Mr. Lund then filed a request for a temporary restraining order in California to halt the sale of the ranch but was denied because there was not enough evidence that the sale was imminent. Mr. Lund’s Trustees had previously filed a Petition for Instructions with the California court on October 1, 2020 and are now proceeding with the sale despite the fact that the court has not heard their motion on the ranch issue and has not set a date for the hearing. “This is just another fiduciary violation by people I should be able to trust,” Mr. Lund stated.

"My client is being held to an impossible standard," said Sandra Slaton, attorney to Mr. Lund. "The California court denied his request for a temporary restraining order because Mr. Lund couldn't prove the closing date was imminent, but the Trustees have refused to provide that information to Mr. Lund. How is he supposed to defend his rights and defend his family ranch from being sold if his Trustees won't even provide such basic information as a closing date?"

Mr. Lund's letter also alleges that the Trustees have violated their duties to him in arranging for the sale of the ranch:

"You have violated your agreement with me to purchase Michelle's interest in the ranch with my trust assets and to keep the ranch in my trust for my use. You know that the ranch is very special to me, and it was not to be sold…You are only selling the ranch to benefit financially yourselves and that is a crime."

"I will not stop fighting for this ranch," Brad Lund said. "It has been in my family for forty years, and it was always meant to be kept in the family for our use and enjoyment, not sold to some possibly commercial developer."

Contact: [email protected], (202) 480-4309

SOURCE Lanny Davis